Nuclear plant having in-depth inspection

Unusual inspection ordered at Browns Ferry after safety violations

By Ray HenryThe Associated Press

Published: Friday, May 17, 2013 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 11:38 p.m.

Federal authorities are conducting the final phase of an in-depth inspection at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Alabama, where safety violations have earned some of the worst ratings among plants monitored by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

NRC officials ordered the unusual inspection in mid-2011 after deciding the failure of a valve in an emergency cooling system constituted a serious safety problem, or what the agency calls a red-level violation. The agency had by then issued only five red findings — its most severe category — since the start of its current oversight program in 2001.

A 23-person NRC team arrived at the plant in the past week as the last part of a three-phase inspection. They will spend an estimated 3,000 hours interviewing plant workers and reviewing its maintenance, operations, engineering and oversight, particularly its safety culture, said Bill Jones, the deputy director of the NRC’s Region II Division of Reactor Projects who is leading the inspection. The team’s findings will be released at a public meeting expected in June.

Browns Ferry Unit 1, one of three reactors at the plant, has repeatedly run afoul of NRC regulations. Federal officials assign the more than 100 commercial nuclear reactors in the United State to one of five categories based on performance. The Unit 1 reactor is the only facility in the second-to-last performance category, though NRC officials believe it is safe enough to operate. One other plant, Fort Calhoun in Nebraska, has been shut down until it addresses what federal officials consider to be significant problems.

The NRC issued a violation against the Tennessee Valley Authority after investigating how a valve on a cooling system at its Brown Ferry Unit 1 reactor became stuck, a serious problem in case of a fire. The utility’s emergency plan called for using that cooling system if a blaze disabled other equipment. However, the stuck valve would have made the cooling equipment unusable, forcing plant operators to hastily take other steps.

NRC officials were particularly concerned because the failure may have gone unnoticed for a prolonged period. The valve was last known to work in March 2009 and was discovered broken in October 2010. That caused an intensive look at the TVA’s maintenance program and the willingness of its employees to raise, identify and solve problems.

“The more we looked, the more the type of problems that were revealed,” Jones said, who added that plant culture was a major part of the review. “... That’s the crux of the issue.”

TVA officials said they have made improvements to accountability at the facility, fire prevention, operations, equipment reliability and its formal program to identify and correct plant problems. The utility said it expects the NRC probe may reveal additional issues that require attention.

“Our ultimate goal is sustained excellence, and though we’re not there yet, we have made significant strides and we look forward to sharing our efforts with the NRC when they’re on-site for the ... inspection,” TVA spokesman Duncan Mansfield said in a statement.

The TVA has found itself under scrutiny before. The utility voluntarily shut down its entire nuclear fleet in 1985 to address safety and performance issues. The Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry reopened in 2007.

TVA, the county’s largest public utility, supplies power to about 9 million people in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

<p>Federal authorities are conducting the final phase of an in-depth inspection at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Alabama, where safety violations have earned some of the worst ratings among plants monitored by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. </p><p>NRC officials ordered the unusual inspection in mid-2011 after deciding the failure of a valve in an emergency cooling system constituted a serious safety problem, or what the agency calls a red-level violation. The agency had by then issued only five red findings — its most severe category — since the start of its current oversight program in 2001. </p><p>A 23-person NRC team arrived at the plant in the past week as the last part of a three-phase inspection. They will spend an estimated 3,000 hours interviewing plant workers and reviewing its maintenance, operations, engineering and oversight, particularly its safety culture, said Bill Jones, the deputy director of the NRC's Region II Division of Reactor Projects who is leading the inspection. The team's findings will be released at a public meeting expected in June. </p><p>Browns Ferry Unit 1, one of three reactors at the plant, has repeatedly run afoul of NRC regulations. Federal officials assign the more than 100 commercial nuclear reactors in the United State to one of five categories based on performance. The Unit 1 reactor is the only facility in the second-to-last performance category, though NRC officials believe it is safe enough to operate. One other plant, Fort Calhoun in Nebraska, has been shut down until it addresses what federal officials consider to be significant problems. </p><p>The NRC issued a violation against the Tennessee Valley Authority after investigating how a valve on a cooling system at its Brown Ferry Unit 1 reactor became stuck, a serious problem in case of a fire. The utility's emergency plan called for using that cooling system if a blaze disabled other equipment. However, the stuck valve would have made the cooling equipment unusable, forcing plant operators to hastily take other steps. </p><p>NRC officials were particularly concerned because the failure may have gone unnoticed for a prolonged period. The valve was last known to work in March 2009 and was discovered broken in October 2010. That caused an intensive look at the TVA's maintenance program and the willingness of its employees to raise, identify and solve problems. </p><p>“The more we looked, the more the type of problems that were revealed,” Jones said, who added that plant culture was a major part of the review. “... That's the crux of the issue.” </p><p>TVA officials said they have made improvements to accountability at the facility, fire prevention, operations, equipment reliability and its formal program to identify and correct plant problems. The utility said it expects the NRC probe may reveal additional issues that require attention. </p><p>“Our ultimate goal is sustained excellence, and though we're not there yet, we have made significant strides and we look forward to sharing our efforts with the NRC when they're on-site for the ... inspection,” TVA spokesman Duncan Mansfield said in a statement. </p><p>The TVA has found itself under scrutiny before. The utility voluntarily shut down its entire nuclear fleet in 1985 to address safety and performance issues. The Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry reopened in 2007. </p><p>TVA, the county's largest public utility, supplies power to about 9 million people in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.</p>